This is an interesting thread, with many interesting posts and viewpoints. I made a couple of posts earlier ... one serious, one not. I've had a few rums and beers and feel like unloading a little. Hopefully something of value will come out.
As I said in one of my earlier posts, I should have died a couple of times already but didn't, which has given me a somewhat fatalistic view of life and death. Several other personal experiences have only reinforced that.
I have been a pall bearer three times so far in my life, only one of which was for a normal death.
The first time I was a pall bearer was for my two-year-old niece. She died from complications of pneumonia and incompetent rural hospital staff. There was no rationale for her death that I have ever figured out.
The second time I was a pall bearer was for a close friend who died in a really stupid accident. He was traveling in a car that was being tailgated by a guy with his brights on that refused to pass the vehicle my buddy was traveling in, even though the drive of my buddy's vehicle slowed to below speed limit (rural highway, late at night). Ultimately, the driver of my buddy's car pulled onto the shoulder of the highway and stopped. A fist fight ensued and the driver of my buddy's car was knocked unconscious in the middle of the highway. My buddy was pulling him off the middle of the highway when an oncoming vehicle struck and killed them both. The real irony of this incident was that the guy who struck my buddy and his friend was a truck driver who had someone commit suicide by driving under his semi a couple weeks before that and was undergoing therapy to deal with the trauma of that incident. I have never been able to find any rationale for that incident.
I had a friend who died at 14 due to a "trick" hanging gag he was trying to do. The apparatus for the hanging trick malfunctioned and he strangled to death in front of his family. I can find no rationale in this incident as well.
I had an uncle who died in a work related accident shortly after he retired. He was working a few extra shifts to fill in as holiday relief. Shortly after that, his oldest son died in a work related accident. His son was a marine biologist and the research barge he was on was swamped during a storm off of Tofino. No remains were found. Again, I cannot find any rationale for their deaths. I doubt the message was don't work.
The above deaths, combined with my own survival when by rights I should have been killed, leads me to believe that there is often no reason for life or death. It's either your turn, or it's not. And there's not much you can do about it.
As for an afterlife, I figure that doesn't matter much either. If there's an afterlife great. If not you're not likely going to know or care. I believe there is some kind of afterlife though. I was at my father's bedside when he died. He was practically in a coma due to advanced cancer and general systemic shutdown when he died. Right at the end though he came out of his coma, stupor, or whatever you want to call it, looked up at the ceiling in the corner of his hospital room, pointed at his chest, nodded, and died. It really seemed he was communicating with somebody or something unseen. That's the best evidence I've ever seen for the existence of an afterlife. But who knows, maybe I was just trying to read meaning into his death throes. I reckon I'll find out eventually.
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